Sunday, February 28, 2010

An Orderly Procession Of Exact Thoughts

Nothing is matching my mood tonight. Which is one of the desire for intense study and diligence.

I've been into the Ezekiel temple passages, Ezekiel 40 and following, for some time, and I've felt like studying that, as best as I can. It's minutes here, an hour there.

I have a great thing I got at Google called SketchUp, and someone made a model of the temple and environs. It's greatly helpful, since reading it in the Bible is a tough go without being able to visualize it accurately.

You get the SketchUp program at this link. Then the file that the program opens is at this link. You don't end up with a static picture like above, but a whole interactive set. Once you figure out the controls reasonably well, you can go places, walk up on the altar and look around, walk into the Holy of Holies and check it out, etc. There's all kinds of little places you can go, seeing it from many angles.

As far as making sense of the doorways, posts, etc., it is a terrific help.

One thing, though, it is tough to figure it out at first. Going up, going down, getting blocked by a pillar, losing your place. But keep working with the walking function and the looking around function, as well as the left button of the mouse and the shift key, and you can eventually get it. If not, there are helpful tabs at the top that let you go to the structure mentioned in particular verses.

So why am I so into this? I never was before. But the way I see it, without getting too far into it, these passages can teach us to be exact in our own temple, ourselves. That is, not just leaving our disciplines to chance or being lazy in our spiritual diligence, but being exact, precise, and focused. I'm not usually, by nature. But a little focus can be very helpful.

Another good way to train your thoughts is to listen to music. Such as Jimi Hendrix, who has a new album (!) coming out in March. I got the CD single from it today. And it goes right along with the whole temple thing.